The breadth of our consulting team experience, which includes brand marketing, sales management and retail management, provides a perspective to marketing planning that is essential in an industry that is rapidly transitioning to where the store is the primary demand generator.

Today’s environment requires not only the application of conventional marketing disciplines but an understanding of both the consumer and the shopper, the retail environment, the store as media, the application of advanced shopper research methodologies, the alignment of brand and retailer target consumer segments and the relationship of brand performance to the shopping experience.

This understanding, combined with our marketing and category management expertise, and the work we are doing to build client shopper insights capabilities, enables us to be more than a typical marketing consulting firm. We have a value added capability that can enhance the effectiveness of marketing planning for CPG manufacturers, both large and small.

Our experience includes brand planning, new market and category entry plans, portfolio analysis and planning, new products, consumer promotion, co-marketing and in-store marketing.

Brand Strategies/Plans

We believe in a disciplined and comprehensive brand planning approach that begins by identifying the strategic imperatives for building and sustaining brand equity. These strategic imperatives provide the foundation for the development of annual brand plans.

New Business Development

The ability to successfully build new brands, enter new categories and enter new markets requires a comprehensive diagnostic, planning and implementation process. Outlined below is an example of how we approach new business development initiatives.

Our brand marketing expertise, combined with our unparalleled understanding of consumer packaged goods industry dynamics, from both a retailer and manufacturer perspective, adds a dimension that enhances the probability for success. Our consulting team has designed new category and market entry strategies and go-to-market plans for companies entering the U.S.market and for U.S. companies entering foreign markets . We have considerable new product development experience in food, health & beauty care and general merchandise categories.

Managing the Multi-Brand Portfolio

Maximizing return on investment of a multi-brand portfolio is a more complex and challenging task than dealing with a single brand portfolio with numerous product lines.

This is particularly true if the various brands compete in different categories. A well managed multi-category, multi-brand portfolio can provide a company with balanced sales and profit growth and meet defined ROI targets.

In order to maximize sales and profits in a multi-brand, multi-category organization, careful thought, planning and execution are necessary. Substantial resources must be allocated to the development and continuing review of its strategic and tactical plans.

We have considerable experience conducting strategic analysis of CPG manufacturer multi-brand portfolios, the basis on which a brand portfolio competing in different categories should be managed. This is a comprehensive analytical process. Our suggested timeline is three years of history, current year, and three years for projections. Once the analysis is completed, we facilitate a prioritization process which typically categorizes brands into four groups…growth, maintenance, milk and divest/discontinue. These groupings identify the potential for sales and profit growth, investment guidelines and whether or not brands continue to fit into the strategic and tactical goals of a company.

An annual review of the brand analysis and prioritization processes should take place, and indicated course corrections be made.